


Not Really In The Study Guide

by SaintClaire



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anatomy Students, F/M, I wouldn't give a fuck even if it was, It's sex guys, Jarred is a useless model, Melendez is a TA, Someone had to write it, gratuitous sex, is it against the rules?, learning is good fun kids, no underage this is is uni, oooh we have to learn the vessels of the body by drawing them on someone, requirements - naked, this is a good way to learn, well nearly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 12:54:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14569455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintClaire/pseuds/SaintClaire
Summary: Anatomy Student AU.In which tracing the vessels of the body all over your nearly-naked postgrad supervisor is an excellent way to learn their names and positions when your best friend wimps out and can't deal because he's ticklish.It's even better if you've both got a crush on each other.





	Not Really In The Study Guide

**Author's Note:**

> Did anyone ask for this AU? No. But I felt like writing it anyway, and it took forever and I kind of hated looking at it by this point. This will probably be one of my last contributions to the fandom for a little while, I have insane amounts of shit to do. I have next to no experience writing sex scenes, so no judgement. Heed the tags, (the beginning ones at least) and have fun learning next-to-nothing, my fellow lustful students.

The intricate drawing of the network of nerve pathways beneath the skin was painstakingly inked up Jarred’s arm in white, messy shorthand names scrawled beside them in metallic gold.

Claire laughed as he squirmed uncomfortably under the soft tip of the marker, goose bumps crawling over his skin as he writhed.

“Hold still! I didn’t realise you were so ticklish.”

“I am not ticklish” he protested, letting out an undignified squawk as the tip of the pen dug in slightly harder in the soft skin perilously close to his armpit. He let out a fully formed shriek two seconds later, leaping backwards off the stool to get away from Claire as she snapped the lid back on the marker in exasperation, throwing it gently at him to watch it bounce off against his forehead.

“That’s it! I can’t do it with you constantly wriggling. It’s like a sign from the heavens that I’m just never going to learn these nerve pathways.”

She flopped back against the crappy mattress with a huff, landing with an alarming crinkling of notes, as the papers protested their harsh treatment beneath her.

 “700 people in this subject and you seriously can’t find anyone other than me to go over this with?”

“You think I should be asking Shaun to take his clothes off and sit still while I draw all over him in shitty metallic markers?”

Jarred snorted. “Point,” he conceded.

 

…

  

Thank god for Shaun’s organisational skills. The timely reminder her phone buzzed out gave her a total of 15 minutes to get their on time, before she would officially be considered late.

She was nearly running as she bounded around her flat, grabbing assorted bits and pieces before racing out to her car. Yeah she was expected to be at the building by 8, but she might have been eager to get their for slightly more personal reasons.

And on top of that, anyone who arrived late for a meeting with Melendez was a fool.

He was more than a couple of years older than everyone else, and the rumours flew thick and fast from day one, when he walked into the lecture theatre room with a coffee cup in hand and a jaw masked with stubble. He was the nephew of the college dean, paid to supervise the anatomy resource room and it’s lowly undergrads while he continued his own studies. He was a scholarship prodigy, accepted early into one of the best schools among the Ivy’s, fast tracked on a career as a successful surgeon. There was supposedly nothing he couldn’t answer when students questioned him about different anatomy aspects, nothing he couldn’t explain in five different ways to someone struggling to grasp a concept. He was secretly sleeping with the final year coordinator, in order to get the flawless marks he currently held, though that one was under controversial debate.

In short, Neil Melendez (who went solely by his last name, to all other teachers and students alike, outside their small study group) was the singularly most attractive medical post-grad this side of 50, and a rival to George Clooney even then. 

What was almost as well known, was that he was a bit of a dick.

He was impatient, sometimes dismissive, and occasionally downright rude to students in the higher year levels who had to ask for help with basic anatomy. More than one student had been turned away with a harsh rebuke in front of their peers, chastised for a level of ignorance that could hurt their placement patients. Melendez’ bad side was a place that no-one wanted to be, but sometimes, when textbooks, the depths of the internet and large-scale models failed to provide, only a human being would do, and all questions throughout the resource room eventually cycled back to Melendez.

 

…

 

Shaun was waiting for them in the corner of the foyer, his body wedged tightly between the plates of reinforced glass that made up the walls. On seeing Claire he started a little, nose drifting up into the air before attempting to cross the perilously busy floor space, doing strange little hopping movements every now and then to avoid coming into contact with someone.

Neil looked up and gave a short nod of acknowledgement as they walked in with 20 seconds to spare, throwing a tightly tied plastic bag to Shaun, that Jarred snatched out of the air before he had the chance to fumble and drop it, before smoothly pressing it back to Shaun’s hands.

“A cousin of mine was visiting from out of state, he does seasonal work on a set of orchids. Keeps bringing me apples and oranges and shit. I’ve got more than I can eat before they go bad, so do me a favour and take it off my hands.”

Claire smiled as she twisted down to grab the workbook out of her bag, careful not to let the others see. She long suspected that Neil had a soft spot for Shaun, tolerating many of his atypical habits and behaviours with a patience rarely seen from anyone else outside their tiny circle of friends, even from the faculty. While a majority of medical students were stretching a thin stream of money as far as they could go, it wasn’t exactly a secret that Shaun was a little worse off than everyone else. As their late night study sessions had become more frequent, Neil and Jarred had started to take turns showing up with food, all-too-casually mentioning that the café they had walked by had been throwing out the last tray of muffins for the day, or the bakery had a shelf of specials and so on. The bag of edible goods would be subtly placed on the table and positioned closest to Shaun, the rest of them picking at their food until it became obvious Shaun had a full stomach, whereby it all became fair game.

While Shaun’s declarative memory was perfect without fault, his ability to draw was not, and Melendez had carefully spent hours sitting with him at the high steel table at the resource room, painstakingly careful not to let any part of his hand touch Shaun’s as he showed him how to sketch the outlines of the human body and it’s various limbs, along a number of different planes and axis. Careful to exercise the concept of ‘returning favours’ Shaun helped him grade first year exams and papers, shrinking the towering stack of exam pages in half the time it otherwise took. It was a good system.

 

…

 

“How are you going with the blood vessels? And I need the red pen on your right.”

She laughed, flinging the pen across the table at him, giving a mock scowl when he plucked it smoothly out of the air and began to slash crosses all over the test in front of him. Shaun looked gingerly over his shoulder and winced at the unfortunate student’s answers.

“Well I was doing alright until the model decided he was ticklish and packed it in half through” she said, affectionately poking Jarred in the arm.

He snorted, briskly continuing to slash away points as he looked up at Jarred and narrowed his eyes. “Not a tough man after all then Kalu?”, his voice mockingly innocent. She laughed again, accidently knocking her eraser off the table as she shifted in her seat.

Jarred pulled a face in return and snatched the red pen off him, eliciting an indignant squawk from Shaun as he began to brazenly fill out his practice sheet in the illegally red ink. “You see how you hold up when she starts digging in your armpit with a pen,” he muttered. He scowled as he noticed a small mistake and began using white-out over the top of it, while Shaun hovered at his elbow with his mouth set in disapproval at this non-regulation use of stationery.

Melendez was clearly trying not to laugh. 

Giving up on fishing the eraser out from under the table with just her foot, she climbed off her stool and crawled between the legs of the desk, finally finding it hiding underneath the straps of someone’s bag. 

“I could give you a hand” Neil suddenly offered. Claire came up from under the table so fast she cracked her head against the stool, wincing against the sudden pain even as Shaun made a concerned noise and stretched out a futile hand.

“Uhm,” she stuttered, “thanks, but you really don’t have to do that.”

He shrugged, sticking his hands in his pocket as he gave her a half smile. “All of these study sessions won’t have been worth anyone’s time if you fail the exam because Kalu here can’t handle the feeling of a pen” he said, his smile stretching into a grin as Jarred let out an indignant protest.

Their conversation came to an abrupt halt when Shaun looked at his watch and stood up rather suddenly. “It’s 11:47pm” he announced, picking up his bag. “The last bus left seventeen minutes ago. I have to go.”

“Lea picking you up?” Jarred asked, carefully waiting for Shaun’s answering nod.

Shaun did not do well walking home on his own at night. By some grace of god his girlfriend worked at an all night mechanic’s, and frequently snuck out to pick him up when he stayed late to study. The owner there was her uncle, a much older man who also stayed for the night shift, who had dealt with enough shitty customers and employees in his life that he didn’t mind his niece’s slightly odd boyfriend hanging out at the workshop with her, even supplementing his diet occasionally with questionably old pizza. Claire had absolutely no idea how he dealt with it, but the rules of things Shaun couldn’t handle very well changed a bit when Lea was with him. 

It was cute.

 

Jarred checked his own watch out of reflex, throwing his arms over his head to stretch, his vertebrae performing a chorus of sickening cracks before he started to scrape together his own belongings. “I think we can safely say we’ve done enough to call it a night,” he said. “Want a ride home Claire?”

“If you don’t mind,” she sighed, wincing at the thought of the frigid air that awaited them. “Think you can come and convince the heater to work again as well?”

Neil looked up in concern. “Your heater doesn’t work? It’s like, 50 degrees right now. Shouldn’t student accommodation be onto that?”

Claire snorted. “Unless I’m actively dying of hypothermia, it’s not urgent,” she said dryly. “I’m told it’s a ‘usual phenomenon at this time of the year and that they will be with me as soon as possible’, which was a week ago, so… Yeah.”

Neil still looked concerned, opening his mouth to say something until Jarred slung his bag on his back and accidently sent a full sized model of the skull flying off the table, Neil leaping forward to catch it before it hit the ground. The stink eye he gave Jarred had him hustling to help her with her own belongings, mumbling apologies under his breath.

“If you mean it, we could do it Thursday night” she said, trying not to sound like touch-starved undergrad student wholly desperate to see more of Neil’s body than what little was exposed in a lab coat. “Shaun’s staying late that night, we could all do it together? Maybe take turns…?”

He was already shaking his head. “The resource room’s closing for a couple of days after tomorrow, remember?” he said. “We won’t be able to do it here. But my apartment’s not all that far from campus, if you were happy to come over there,” he added, not breaking eye contact with her even to glance in Jarred’s direction.

Her heart felt like it was doing a little war dance of simultaneous triumph and panic through her chest. He was fully facing her, arms crossed over his chest, dead serious and she couldn’t handle it.

“I, ah, I don’t have to work on Thursday night, or I could try and swap shifts if that doesn’t work for you…?”

“I have the night off” he said casually, picking up the stack of freshly graded exams. “Come over then, I even have a working heater” he answered, and then _winked_.

Despite the fact that her feet felt like they were falling through the floor she didn’t get a chance to try and attempt a mature and sophisticated reply, he’d swung around to where Jarred was standing, grinning at the pair of them from the other side of the table. “How about it Kalu? Thursday night? About 9?” 

Still grinning, Jarred held up both hands in ‘can’t do it’ gesture, shaking his head even as he did, and Melendez turned away. “Sorry, promised I would, um, I’m helping Shaun fix the, um…” he trailed off blankly, twirling his finger in the air as he visibly scrambled to find an appropriate excuse. “The sink. Yeah, the sink! I said I’d take him to the hardware shop, try and find a cheap tool kit or something similar.” 

Neil huffed disbelievingly. “I didn’t realize taking Shaun to the hardware store was a metaphor for going on a date with Celez,” he said, hoisting his own load up. “I’ll text you the address, Claire.”

He missed Jarred’s momentarily blank look. “Oh yeah, well, you know how it is. Can’t have you all thinking I don’t want to spend time with you. Except, no offense, she’s better than the rest of you.”

Neil rolled his eyes as he opened the door and pointedly kicked them both out.

 

…

 

For all the mockery, Jarred made a valid effort not to outwardly laugh at her, driving her back over to the res buildings and walking her to the door as she tried vainly to force her exhausted mind to process the fact she had been invited to a study date at Neil’s apartment. Alone.

“You did that on purpose” she said hollowly. “Oh my god, _why?_ ” Jarred laughed, gently body checking her shoulder.

“Why not?” he answered back, grinning like a crazy person.

He stumbled at the hard, unexpected shove to his lower back, laughing even as he righted himself effortlessly, slinging an arm around her shoulders affectionately as he made to open the door for her.

 

…

  

Oh god. She was going to have an aneurysm.

Claire had spent most of the bus trip to Neil’s apartment low-key freaking out over their upcoming study session, and trying to find his apartment in the warren-like building was not helping her building anxiety. 

What the hell was Jarred even thinking? There was literally no way this could end well, she was just going to make an embarrassment of herself. 

She wasn’t even sure this was the right door, were the numbers for the apartment on the right, or the apartment on the left?

She had her answer when the door opened in seconds, carelessly thrown back as he found her, eyes dropping to her height as he smiled. “Hey! I was about to call you, I know it’s a bit of a trick to find this place,” he said, moving out of the way so she could creep forward. 

She blinked a few times as she walked into the open studio, shivering a little as the biting air of outside was replaced with a rush of warmer air that was drifting around the apartment. Between the warm air and several large potted ferns the place had almost a tropical feel, and she said as much to him as she pulled off her gloves.

 “Yeah, the last guy who lived here got dumped by his girlfriend right before he moved out. The plants were hers and he just told me to keep them, he didn’t want to deal with them.” 

“They look pretty good for a guy who says he can keep a human baby alive more easily than a plant.”

He turned around, throwing her a quick smile over his shoulder as he leaned down to inspect them, and his snarky reply got lost in her ears as she stared at the way his shorts tightened over his arse.

_Fucking shit!_ She was coming over to draw on him, of course he would be wearing loose, revealing clothes, how the hell had she not prepared for this?! 

“Just drop your stuff wherever” he called out, moving across the room to the couch. She piled her stuff into a neat heap by the door, pulling out the appropriate book and a pencil case before standing up and losing her breath completely.

He pulled his shirt off as he walked towards the couch, the muscles in his back rippling as he lifted his arms over his head and tucked the hem of the collar into the waist of his shorts, dangling from his side like a sash.

He turned his head to look at her expectantly as he moved backwards to sit on the couch, the thin, black exercise shorts being the only piece of clothing that hid the rest of him from view. He leaned back a bit further against the couch cushion, stretching one arm out to rest along the top, as if inviting her to sit next to him, the pale skin of his inner arm stark in contrast next to the darker tanned skin of his torso.

She was suddenly keenly aware of the death grip she had on the workbook in her hand, the whole room suddenly all too quiet, all joking smiles and humour vanished from his face.

“Shall we get started?”

 

…

  

Her hand was shaking as she traced the first snaky red pathway down him left arm, breath hitching as her fingers caught for a moment on the faint rise of skin at the crease of his elbow.

He was unnaturally still, his chest barely rising as he breathed in slow, measured breaths. It was impossible to keep from touching him. She let her fingers slide down to the tip of the pen, in a position that couldn’t help but brush up against him as she drew the careful lines. Everywhere her fingertips touched, a trail of goose bumps rose shivering, the dark hairs of his forearm standing on end in a pattern that traced alongside the ink of the markers.

She followed the faintly visible blue of his real veins carefully until they disappeared, traces of purple appearing in delicate splotches where the mock arteries and veins had coupled together

He lifted his arm without speaking, and she wriggled forward to shift her weight onto her legs, knees pressed against his hip as she finished the brachial plexus and followed it out to the clavicle, returning briefly to draw a quick series of lymph nodes while his armpit was still exposed.

She swapped pens and changed positions before she was literally on her knees in front of him, one hand pressed to his abdomen to keep him still while she traced the outline of the heart and lungs in brutal, efficient black lines before returning to the mesmerising mix or red and blue that childishly mimicked the real vessels flowing underneath. As she trailed up his chest, catching the tail of the brachial artery with the body of the subclavian; his breath audibly caught for the first time since they started, and her pen slipped from where it had been forging along the underside of his jaw.

“Do you need a break?” she nearly whispered, her voice hoarse from the disuse of the last hour and blatant arousal.

He shook his head tightly, his other hand jerking at the pen to motion the she should continue, his jaw locked in place as he stared straight ahead. His chest was moving more now, not heaving by any means but he was more obviously flustered than he had been since he first sat down on the bed and took off his shirt. The tip of the pen caught a little in the short stubble that had slowly formed over the course of the afternoon, and as she traced over the jugular artery she felt the vastly accelerated pulse, at heavy odds to his relatively still body and composed expression.

She stopped when she had reached as far as the skin behind his ear, the bobbing of his Adam’s apple catching her eye as she slowly recapped the marker, the tiny sound of him swallowing near deafening in the room’s silence.

When she was finished with the rest of the nerves and blood vessels as far as his face, she hesitantly glanced back at the next page of notes for a moment, her gaze darting to the flat plane of his lower stomach and groin that would become the starting point for the vessels of the lower limbs.

His shorts were very obviously tenting.

She traced the line of the external iliac artery until she hit the elastic that held up his straining shorts, determinedly keeping her eyes away from the lush bulge that was inches away from her fingers. Moving over the short expanse of fabric she hesitated for a moment, before pushing aside any lingering remains of her hesitation _._ Time to live boldly. She pushed her hands up under the hem of his shorts, bunching the fabric of the boxers underneath and sweeping her palm up his thigh as she moved the pen in to run the shaky femoral artery up to the inguinal ligament.

The tension, the silence, and the atmosphere all snapped at once. 

Neil groaned, leaning down to seize hold of her upper arms as she stretched up to crash her mouth against his, pressing her chest into his body as he yanked her forward against him. Her fingertips ran over the crease of his inner thigh, hand still trapped in under the fabric as she stroked a single finger over his perineum, tracing upward until she met the heavy weight of his balls as he kissed her frantically, pulling at her lower lip with his teeth as she slid a second finger up to circle under his cock. His legs came up to wrap around her waist, pulling her in as he let himself fall backwards onto the couch. His hands were everywhere, yanking at her shirt in an effort to get it over her head, his fingers tangling in her curls as the other arm slid around her waist, pulling them backwards until she was straddling him where he was backed up against the arm of the couch.

She wrenched her hand out of his boxers, feeling the minute wince he let out against her throat as her fingers slipped away, his pelvis jerking forward to follow before he got himself under control again. She ripped the shorts down his thighs, hurriedly shifting her weight to get the damn things off, out of the way, only to be distracted by the series of tiny bites down the length of her neck, not hard enough to bruise but just enough to show the brief imprint of his teeth in her skin. 

Holding her by her thighs, he pulled her flush up against him, hissing as she ground down as he jerked his hips up, and she felt her eyes roll back in her head a little at the feeling of him against her, finally, eagerly meeting her lips with his as he set his hands on her hips and allowed her to control the pace.

His fingers didn’t stay at her legs very long, reaching for the button on her jeans as she let go of him to help, both of them urgently yanking at the fastening as they remained rocking into each other, Claire gasped with relief as she felt the zip finally give way. Wholly desperate, she should have put a little bit more thought into the execution of pulling her pants off, instead of giving her weight onto one unsteady knee as she tried to slip her left leg out of her pants without pulling away from him. The tumble to the floor was short, Neil so tangled in the snare of her jeans that he came too, reaching for her even as they rolled to a sharp stop against the tiny coffee table. 

Fighting to kick her jeans and underwear off her calves, the small sting of humiliation vanished as he rolled on top of her, reaching down to kiss her without stopping as he shifted onto his hands and knees, the bottom of his thigh pressing between her legs. He picked her up in one smooth motion, her thighs automatically clamping around his hips as he reached back with one hand to rip the pants dangling off her foot from her leg and hurled them across the room.

Her back hit the bed with force as Neil practically threw her onto the quilt and climbed on after her, bracketing her hips with his knees as he helped her wrestle out of her shirt, sparing only a single hungry look at her bra before it was pulled roughly from her body, and they too vanished across the room.

She whimpered as cupped her breasts in his hands, lips curving around the shell of her ear as he stroked a single finger down her neck and over her collarbone, the rest of his hand coming back into play as he slid his fingers over her breasts again, but this time continuing to glide down to the apex of her legs. She shivered as she felt his fingertips caught in the soft curls over her pelvis, starting to shake hard as he let his middle finger trail down further, stroking over her clit before plunging inside her as she cried out.

The slight intrusion felt _so good_ , making her rock unconsciously against his finger for the slight friction it provided, sharply aware of where he was lazily pressing kisses into her shoulder, stopping every few moments to gently press down with his teeth when she ground desperately into his hand. The feeling of his thumb against her clit had her arching into him, breath coming in a sob as his head ducked down to press kisses into the inner crease of her thigh. He added another finger and she threw her hips up, digging into his back with her heels in an effort to bring him closer.

He fucked her with his fingers, watching her unravel beneath him as he pumped in and out of her slowly, letting her hips chase him back inside of her. She whimpered as she twisted, lips clamped tightly together as he lazily stroked his thumb back over her clit, teasing the delicate bundle of nerves as his head dropped down to taste her core, her hands fisting at his hair.

When he rolled slowly onto his back she followed, seamlessly together as he wove his hands deep into her hair, kissing her like he’d been think about it all night, as he’d stared at her lips to avoid watching her hands from drawing all over his body. She pressed kisses over the outlines of his heart as she dropped her knee over his opposite hip, shifting her weight over him so she straddled him, making her way up to the colourful skin at his throat, butterflying kisses all the way.

Neil let out a low, strangled moan as she _slid_ down him, the wetness that had been pooling between her legs for as long as she’d been on her knees before him finally being put to use as she held herself up with her thighs and let her sex run down the length of him, coming back up only to hover above the head of his dick.

She let out a small noise as he pulled away from her abruptly, scrambling over to the bedside drawer and pulling a condom on as she reached for him, sprawling awkwardly over his body as he rolled over and pulled her back on top of him, letting out a loud rush of air against her breastbone as she sank onto him inch by inch, until she was sitting flush against his pelvis, muscles fluttering around him as her eyes closed.

He might be a cocky tease, happy to string her out from between her legs for the indulgence of it, but he’s a gentlemen as he waits for her, letting her work out her own pace, stroking his thumbs over the small of her bacl until she finds her rhythm and gets used to the size of him inside her. His arms are wrapped around her waist, pulling her gently back down as she rocks back and forth on his dick, the muscles in his chest tight in their restraint that keeps him from throwing everything to the wind and just fucking into her the way his eyes say he wants to.

She dipped her head back down to kiss him, and for the second time that night, he gives up all control.

Her head rolled back on her neck as she let out a soft cry, thighs locking around him as he ground up wildly, any sense of rhythm lost as they fought to come as close as possible. She struggled to keep her eyes open as every thrust upward brought his pelvic bone into sharp contact with her clit, unable to stop the sounds that were pouring out of her mouth.

She can feel it when he starts to unravel – the force of his body fucking into hers is bouncing her lightly between the hard length of his dick and the circle of his arms, never too far away from any part of him. She’s so far gone that she can’t put thoughts into words, digging her fingernails into his shoulders in a wordless plea for _harder._

Her vision explodes into a starburst of white, shot with the intricate lines of pen all over his skin as she comes, hanging on for all she’s worth as he takes his final few thrusts inside her, pulse beating wildly against her before she collapsed onto his chest as her thighs clenched around him and she lost the last of her control over her body.

She breathed deep into his neck, the dots around her vision fading slowly as he came back into view, holding her tightly to him. They both groan as she shifted and clenched her internal muscles, several stray jolts of pleasure racing up her spine. She bit her lip as he pulled out slowly, keenly aware of the loss of the warmth inside of her, half-heartedly protesting as he slipped out of bed for a moment to disappear in the bathroom, before reappearing back beside her in bed, pulling her into his chest as he wound an arm around her waist. 

Cuddling was totally her thing. She wouldn’t have thought it was his, but she could feel the quiet hum of his breath against her forehead as he swept one hand absently against her hip, both of his legs still curled with hers. Between the orgasm, the heat of his hand and the warmth of the heady apartment, she was asleep in seconds.

 

…

 

Claire woke up in the early hours of the morning. The morning couldn’t be called pre-dawn yet, only the faintest smudges of grey outside and the vivid green lights of the alarm clock gave an indication it was anything other than the middle of the night.

Neil’s arm was hooked around her waist, still tugging her to him in his sleep. Claire stretched out a hand, creased with lines from the crumpled sheets and gently swept the hair away from his eyes. She ran her fingers over the muscle of his thigh, the plane of his abs and the mouth-watering expanse of his bicep, tracing the smudged lines that were smeared over both their skin. The sheets, a delightful mess of white cotton mussed with drying sweat and arousal had taken on faint hues of the red, blue and black, where the wet ink had mixed with their sweat and painted everything they touched.

She gently eased out from under his arm, wincing as the rush of cool air hit her skin and gingerly crossed the floor to the bathroom, closing it quietly behind her.

After she was finished with the toilet, she went to wash her hands and caught sight of herself in the mirror, tired eyes widening with a soft huff of laughter as she took in her skin. Her hair was exploding backwards off her head, and the bright pen that Neil was covered in had reverse-stamped deep into her body. It was not her most attractive look.

She wandered back into the body of the studio, standing in front of the window as she stared at where Neil was still fast asleep, having shifted onto his stomach. She briefly considered pulling on her clothes, letting herself out and going home to have a shower in order to avoid whatever conversation would surely come in a few hours.

She thought about it.

And then she got back into the bed, ever so delicately easing her way back under the covers, lifting his arm up and snaking one of her legs between his as he got the memo even half asleep, and pulled her closer to him as she kissed his bicep and closed her eyes.

 

…

 

Actual Morning 2.0 came several hours later, when the sun was actually fully in the sky and the smell of coffee had spread into every corner of the room. 

In lieu of going out for breakfast, a scenario in which they would have been forced to put pants on, Neil brought her coffee in bed, his lips alternately moving between his own cup and the wayward spirals of her hair as they absently watched the morning news from where she was curled back against his chest.

When the sports section came on, he drained his cup in a long pull and groaned.

“I really don’t want to have to go in to work today.”

She hummed, a noiseless sound of agreement as she took her hand away from where it had been cradling the steaming mug, letting it drop down to his thigh as he squirmed, arching up and spreading his legs to give her better access as she put her own cup down.

“I’m sitting in on your neuroscience lab.”

She looked back at him, grinning. “You’re not my lecturer, it’s hardly against the rules for us to sleep together.”

Neil sent back a dubious raised eyebrow, leaning in to slide his lips against her ear as she fought of a shiver.

“Mmmmm… True. But the higher rungs of academic medicine get smaller as you go. People usually aren’t joking when the say we’re an incestuous field.”

He blanched as he looked at her face. “Not on my end! I just meant, how many of the staff do you want to know that you’re sleeping with the grad supervisor?”

“So don’t tell them!”

“Easy for you to say,” he grumbled. “I’m not telling them anything. You just aren’t the one who has to pretend to be professional when you’re swaying around in a lab coat being unfairly smart and sexy. Do you know how many times I’ve nearly walked into a wall trying to watch what you’re doing?

She swatted at him, fighting to not to smile as he laughed, ducked, and pushed them backwards into the pillow. 

“About as many times as I’ve crossed my legs and thought of all the more interesting things I could be doing instead of listening to you teach on the internal muscles of the pelvis?” she asked innocently, dropping her thighs to straddle him and watching his eyes roll back in his head.

She grinned as he bucked up to meet her, keeping the innocent look on her face as her hand wound it’s way further up his thigh. “Sounds hard.”

 

…

 

She aced the test. 100% percent, not a single question wrong she was sure, obviously worthy of being stuck to the side of her tiny fridge in a place of honour.

She’d lost a few valuable minutes in the middle there, accidently drifting off to a hazy daydream where she traced smudged blue ink down golden skin, returning to the real world with a sharp bump when she realised her underwear were becoming damp between her legs while she sat in an airless exam room.

Not really the place for it.

…

 

Three days before the rest of the students received the marks, she took her reward as Neil found his own set of body-ink pens and painstakingly traced over every sensitive area of the female form, warm breath pressing open kisses along the same path as he let her writhe underneath him, pinned to the bed with his legs.

It turns out intimate knowledge of anatomy was worth something more than a career after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I am considering locking my account guys, which would make it AO3 users only. Thoughts? Also, if you liked this or it brought up any reaction at all, please drop me a comment, I would really love to know! xx


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